Parents’ experiences of choosing a special school for their children

Abstract

This paper is about English parents’ experiences of making decisions about special school placements in the national context of rising special school placements and more parental choice and school diversity. The aim of this research was to investigate whether the current legislative focus on optimising parent choice operates as intended from the parents’ perspective. More specifically, it aimed to examine the views of parents of pupils in special schools in the South West of England: their reasons for choosing special school, the extent to which they felt they had an independent choice and their views on alternative provision. Fifty seven parents with children in special schools in three local authority special schools completed an online questionnaire that collected numerical and textual data. Analysis showed that the top three factors influencing decisions were school atmosphere, caring approach to pupils and class size, a finding that connected with their concepts of inclusive education. These and other findings point to the limitations of the choice-diversity model implemented over the last few decades in England. The research illustrates distinctive parental perspectives on schooling, inclusive education and the dilemmas they experience in choosing provision for their children.